by Eva Pohler
Ellen felt a chill of excitement—or perhaps of hysteria—crawl down her back. “You guarantee it?”
“I do,” he said with a smile.
“I’m going back,” Tanya said, as she turned toward the Visitor Center.
Ellen suddenly wanted to see the grizzlies. She wanted it more than she’d wanted anything in the past several months. She turned to Sue. “I’m going with Rich. Are you?”
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Sue said.
“Then wait here,” Ellen said before nodding to Rich to lead the way.
“Well, hell,” Sue said. “I feel responsible for you. If you’re going, I guess I’m going, too.”
Ellen giggled. “You only live once.”
“And that’s supposed to be an argument in favor of going?” Sue asked.
Ellen giggled again. The hole in her heart seemed nothing but a tiny pinpoint as the fear, excitement, and thrill of adventure took possession of her.
Rich slowed his pace and lightened his footfalls before whispering, “From here on out, don’t speak.”
The brush became thick before the lake came into view. At first, Ellen saw nothing but more mountain vistas and sparkling water. It wasn’t until Sue covered her mouth and gasped that Ellen saw four grizzlies to the east fishing in the shallow part of the lake not far from its banks—a mother and three cubs.
Their light-brown fur appeared golden blond in the bright sunshine. One of the cubs seemed to be playing more than fishing as it tumbled forward, like an acrobat performing a somersault, before popping up from the water to hover close to its mother and siblings.
The mother scoured the lake for trout. When she finally caught one in her fierce teeth, Ellen expected her to feed her cubs, but she ate it without sharing so much as a bite.
Ellen held her breath when the bears moved along the shore in their direction. Then the mother climbed onto the bank and sat up on her hind legs to look and sniff around. Did she smell the onlookers? Sue took a few careful steps back.
Ellen was about to follow Sue’s lead when the mother bear suddenly plopped onto her back to dry in the sun as the cubs found a teat and nursed. Ellen covered her mouth to stifle the joyful laughter bubbling in her throat. It was a sweet, adorable sight and an amazing privilege to behold it.
Once they were in the van and headed back to Glacier Park Lodge, Sue leaned forward and asked Rich Falcon, “Have you ever heard of Talks to Buffalo Lodge?”
“Of course,” he said. “Everyone who lives on the reservation has heard of it. It’s the most haunted place in Montana.”
Sue glanced back at Ellen before turning back to Rich. “Well, I’m going to look at it tomorrow. I’m thinking of buying it.”
“You’re a brave woman,” he said. “My people avoid that area like the plague.”
Ellen said, “We’re paranormal investigators. We have a lot of experience with haunted places.”
“Good,” he said. “You’ll need it.”
A moment later he asked, “So when will you be undergoing the purification ritual?”
“The what?” Ellen asked.
Sue gave her a sheepish grin. “I hadn’t told my friends about that yet.”
Tanya frowned. “About what?”
“The tribal secretary said that, before she can show us the property, we’ll need to undergo a purification ceremony,” Sue explained. “It’s for our own protection, she said.”
“What’s a purification ceremony?” Ellen asked.
“I guess you’re about to find out,” Rich Falcon said with a hearty laugh.
Chapter Three: Badger-Two Medicine
That night, Ellen had a hard time falling asleep, even though her room and the bed were quite comfortable, and the views, which she could see without crawling out from beneath the covers, were breathtaking. Even at night, the moon and starlight washed over the surrounding white mountain peaks with iridescent brilliance.
She hadn’t slept well in months. As had become her habit every night, she ate ten milligrams of melatonin with a glass of red wine and turned on the television. She used her Amazon Prime account to re-watch episodes of Downton Abbey until she fell asleep.
It seemed as if only a few moments had passed when her morning alarm on her phone went off. She groaned.
After she’d managed to get out of bed and to wash her face at the bathroom sink, she was astonished to see Weeping Wall in her bathroom mirror. She blinked, and it vanished.
By the time she had joined her friends in the lodge restaurant for breakfast, she had come alive again. A cup of coffee was all it took. She and her friends went through the buffet line to fill their plates before returning to their table beside an enormous window with more incredible mountain views.
“Eat up,” Sue said. “We’ll be fasting all afternoon, as part of the purification ceremony.”
“I thought we were supposed to fast all day,” Tanya said. “Isn’t that what Rich Falcon said yesterday?”
“I don’t think so,” Sue said as she took a bite of her Belgium waffle, which was sprinkled with powdered sugar. “Anyway, it’s too late now.”
The pancakes seemed to melt in Ellen’s mouth. “If I’m not careful, I’m going to gain back that twenty pounds that always seem to come back.”
“Twenty pounds is nothing,” Sue said. “I gain that much just by drinking a glass of water.”
Ellen doubted that was true, but she smiled and took a sip of her coffee.
After breakfast, Ellen and her friends rode the hotel shuttle to the reservation tribal headquarters. The reservation reminded Ellen of the old army and air force bases in San Antonio. The land was flat and had relatively few trees compared to the surrounding landscape. The houses sat close to the road and were mostly small bungalows with no fencing or landscaping. The shuttle drove past an abandoned basketball park surrounded by a chain-link fence before coming upon a long rectangular building without any signage. Ellen thought it could be a nursing home or a school. There was no way of knowing. Beyond it was another long rectangular building that resembled an old motel.
“Here we are,” their driver said as he pulled into a parking space. “Just give me a call when you’re ready to be picked up.”
“This is the tribal headquarters?” Sue asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” the driver said.
Ellen followed the others from the shuttle. They stood beneath the hot summer sun surrounded by dust.
“Which way do we go?” Ellen asked Sue.
Sue looked this way and that. “I have no idea which is the front door.”
“Should we try that one?” Tanya pointed to the door in the center of the building.
Sue shrugged. “Seems as good a try as any.”
They entered a corridor that reminded Ellen of a middle school. Even the sign that read, “Main Office,” had the feel of a school.
Before they reached the main office, an old man emerged from the door with a smile on his face.
“You should have worn better shoes,” he said to Sue.
He was about her height and wore his short white hair combed to one side. His dark eyes were like black pebbles on a mostly hairless face. His mouth barely moved when he spoke, and his teeth occasionally whistled. “Those sandals won’t be comfortable.”
“They’re my most comfortable shoes,” Sue said. “I have feet problems, and I had these made especially for me.”
Two other men joined the first in the hallway beside Ellen and her friends.
“You’ll want to wear socks with them, then,” the first man continued. His thin lips formed a natural smile as he spoke, giving the impression that he was always smiling. “We’ll be walking through all kinds of terrain today, and you won’t want your skin exposed to the elements.”
Ellen was glad that she had worn her Vans. Tanya had worn sneakers. The three men wore jeans and boots, along with their long-sleeved button-down shirts, which, to Ellen, seemed like the wrong attire for the summer heat.
“No,” he said. “My name is Eric Old Person. I’m the chief of Blackfeet Nation.”
“Oh,” Sue glanced nervously at Ellen and Tanya. “How nice to meet you. We weren’t expecting to meet royalty today.”
The three men laughed.
“The chief likes to be present at any ceremonies conducted with non-Indians,” the tallest of the three men explained in his deep baritone voice. Then he offered his hand. “Hello. I’m Jack Stone. And I live just around the corner. I’ll grab you a pair of socks on our way out.”
Although he was mostly bald, he had a strong jawline and attractive eyes beneath dark, bushy brows.
“That’s awfully nice,” Sue said with a smitten look on her face. Then she whispered to Ellen, “He fills out his jeans nicely, doesn’t he?”
“You’re going to get into trouble one of these days,” Ellen whispered back.
The third man was also tall but wiry and was wearing a cowboy hat over his long dark hair, which fell in a single braid down his back. He reached out his hand and said, “I’m Terry Murray.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Ellen said.
They followed the men to a minivan, where Terry Murray took the driver’s seat as Jack Stone opened the sliding backdoor for the ladies.
Eric Old Person sat in the front passenger seat. Jack Stone helped Tanya and Sue into the middle seat before joining Ellen in the third. Sue glanced back at Ellen with raised brows. Ellen blushed, worried the look hadn’t gone unnoticed by Jack. She wanted to smack her friend upside the head but forced a smile instead as Jack settled into the seat beside her.
“I’m looking forward to the tour of your reservation,” Sue said to the chief. “Especially since I may be its newest resident.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Eric Old Person said. “There’s no need for a tour, unless you plan to purchase the property, and you can’t set foot on the property until you’ve been purified.”
Sue’s smile faded as she glanced back at Ellen.
“It’s for your protection,” Jack Stone explained. “You wouldn’t want to face the evil at Talks to Buffalo Lodge without first arming yourself with purity.”
“I suppose not,” Sue said.
“Can you tell us more about the evil spirit?” Tanya asked Jack as Terry pulled away from the headquarters and onto the road. “Have you experienced anything paranormal there, personally?”
From the front seat, Eric Old Person said, “You must understand that we believe all spirits, good and evil, dwell alongside us. They often reach out to us—sometimes through animals or plants or other objects. We don’t consider them paranormal. We consider them normal. You understand?”
“I think I do,” Tanya said. “Thanks for explaining that.”
“Having said that,” the chief added, “I must admit that I’ve never encountered anything more sinister or violent than the evil spirit that resides at Talks to Buffalo Lodge.”
Tanya glanced back at Ellen with a pale face. Ellen and Sue also exchanged worried looks.
“Should we be afraid for our lives?” Sue asked the men.
“The purification ritual will help,” the chief said.
Ellen didn’t find the chief’s answer reassuring—not one bit. She began to wonder what horrible danger Sue had gotten them into.
Terry Murray stopped at a corner bungalow, where Jack jumped out, saying, “Be right back.”
The rest of them sat in awkward silence as the dust from road settled, until Jack returned with a pair of white tube socks, which he handed to Sue.
“Thank you,” Sue said, sounding less than grateful, as though they weren’t quite up to her standards.
“Don’t worry, they’re clean,” Jack said with a laugh.
A few moments later, as they pulled from the reservation, Ellen turned to Jack. “So, tell me about your sweat lodge. Is it very big?”
Jack laughed. “It’s not a permanent structure. Is that what you thought? You imagined a lodge with a big fireplace and tall ceilings, like the one you’re staying at in East Glacier Park?”
Ellen shrugged. “Well, not exactly.”
“There are no manmade structures, roads, or infrastructures of any kind in Badger-Two Medicine,” Jack said. “When you walk along the river, or across the plains, or along the mountainside, or through the trees, you see exactly what people ten thousand years ago would have seen. Nothing’s changed.”
“Then what is the sweat lodge?” Sue asked. “A cave?”
The men upfront laughed.
“Not a cave,” Jack said. “You have to build it. It’s part of the ritual.”
“Wait. What?” Sue asked.
“When you say, ‘you have to build it,’” Ellen asked, “do you mean us? My friends and I?”
“We’re here to help,” Terry Murray said as he turned down another road leading to the highway.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Sue said sarcastically. “You do realize that my friends and I are approaching sixty?”
“I’m sixty-three,” Jack said. “And Terry is nearly sixty, aren’t you, bud?”
“I turn sixty in December,” their driver said.
“And I’m seventy-eight,” Eric Old Person said. “Surely if I can do it…”
“You don’t look your age,” Sue said.
“Thank you,” the chief said. “It comes from routinely being in nature. Walking, climbing, breathing—it’s all good for your soul as well as your body.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Sue said in a feeble attempt to get a laugh.
“I suppose I can wait in the car,” Tanya said with a smile, “since I’m not planning on setting foot on the property.”
“Do you really want to miss all the fun?” Ellen asked, fighting a fit of giggles.
Tanya giggled, too. “I think I’ll be okay.”
“No, Tanya,” Sue insisted. “You’re in the best shape of the three of us. Plus, you like being in nature. You said you want to go on a vision quest, didn’t you?”
“All vision quests begin with a purification ceremony,” Jack said. “So, consider this practice.”
Ellen burst into laughter. “I suppose we’re in for it, now. Come on, Sue. Don’t look so out of sorts. You might get to hold a power tool.”
“No power tools,” Terry Murray said as he merged onto the highway. “We take very little onto the land, and we take nothing from it, except what we hunt, to nourish our bodies.”
“Aren’t we bringing tools?” Ellen asked Jack beside her.
“Just an ax and a saw and some rope,” Jack said.
“And our knives,” Terry Murray added.
“You see,” Eric Old Person began, “Sun and Moon told one of the very first of our people how to make the sweat lodge. The young man was known as Scarface. And when he returned from living in the sky with Morning Star, he became known as Mistaken-For-Morning-Star, because his scar was gone, and he was as beautiful as Morning Star. He taught the rest of us what Creator wants us to do. We’ve been doing it this way for thousands of years.”
Sue gave Ellen a look of fright. “We may be in for a lot more than we bargained for.”
“You think?” Ellen continued to fight the giggles.
Terry Murray parked the van on the side of a road near a long line of pine trees. After everyone but Sue climbed out, they gathered supplies from the back of the van while Sue pulled on the tube socks. Along with the saw and ax were three canteens, a ceremonial pipe, a black forked stick with a leather handle, dozens of short lengths of rope wound together in a bag made of netting, and several colorful woven blankets and animal skins.
“What are those for?” Ellen asked, pointing to the blankets and skins.
“Those will be the walls of our sweat lodge,” Eric Old Person replied as he took out the pipe. “See this? It’s very, very old and was given to us by the Creator. He uses it to speak with us.”
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�I can’t wait to hear what he has to say,” Ellen said.
“Now, don’t laugh,” Sue said, as she finally climbed from the van wearing her sandals over the socks. “I know I’m not the most fashionable-looking among us.”
“You’re much better off than you were,” Jack said, as he handed her a blanket to carry.
Sue turned to Tanya, who already had a blanket thrown over her shoulder. “I’m glad you decided to come along.”
“I’m sure you are,” Tanya teased. “Or you’d be carrying this one, too.”
As the chief led the way through the trees and thick underbrush, Terry Murray, who carried the forked stick and bag of netting over one shoulder, said, “Everything has to be gathered a certain way. You want round stones for the coals. Keep an eye out for them. You can collect them in your blankets.”
“And you want thin but strong willow branches for the frame,” Jack added. “It would be best if you picked out the poles, since this is for your purification, but I’ll guide you.”
“We also need sage for the floor,” Eric Old Person said. “Sage grows all over the area, so let us know when you spot some. You know what sage is, don’t you?”
Sue chuckled. “We use it all the time, though it’s usually dried and tied into a smudge stick.”
“I know what it looks like,” Tanya said.
“Then it’s good thing you came,” Sue added.
The chief added, “The Creator will lead you to the right rocks, to the right branches, and to the right sage. Then, if he so wishes, he will use those elements to make his message clear to you.”
“Watch your step,” Jack said. “We avoid making trails by entering from a different way as often as we can. Watch out for this thorny bush.”
Jack held a branch to the side while the ladies passed through.
“Thanks,” Ellen said. Then to Sue, she said, “I bet you’re glad for those socks now.”
“Don’t rub it in,” Sue complained.
Once they emerged from the pines, they stood on the top of a hillside overlooking a beautiful valley, with the Missouri River running through it.